"There are solutions to that."

" - I assume if you trusted a truth spell at all then we would have none of our present problems, I could assure you that every single thing I'm doing has been for the good of Mendev and that the people I executed as traitors were all verified with magic to be traitors and we'd be done. And if you trusted a Commune we'd have none of our present problems, because you could've asked Iomedae if I should run your Crusade -"

"I think someone did, at some point. Not me. It is not a power granted to paladins, even very powerful ones."

Technically it is. He doesn't say that, because it only, to his knowledge, happened the once. 

"Iomedae did communicate that the former knight-commander leading the Crusade was expected to lead to good outcomes." Cansellarion confirms, "relative to all likely alternatives."

Dismissive hand-wave. "You are obviously very competent," says Galfrey. "Any other candidate would probably have failed to take Drezen. But at this point, we can have the Crusade run by people who don't hate Mendev and our Goddess."

"Did you ask Her about sending me to die in the Abyss?" This feels like a silly point to be belaboring when he trusts the reported results of the Communes so little, but -

"- we can't ask about every decision we make," says Galfrey.

"...If you have reason to think trying that could possibly have led to good outcomes we would have asked about that."

...Galfrey is baffled. Obviously she did this because she thought it was the right thing to do. "If Aspex is in fact secretly a Baphomet cultist, then it is plainly good to remove him from power," she says. "Even if he's merely a non-cultist conspiring to put Daeran on the throne. And if he were not a cultist, survives the Abyss and solves our problem with the demons, and then comes back murderously angry with me personally that'd still have been worth it."

"I wanted to ask Iomedae some questions myself," Marit says. "Including about how many risks to be taking, whether to consider it worth getting Nenio to ninth circle even at significant risk of getting myself irretrievably killed, whether to go for Terendelev's corpse, whether to explain the thing you're not going to believe.

It was explained to me that only Lastwall does Communes, and so I should simply submit my questions to them, and I did, for those questions I didn't mind them knowing I had, which certainly didn't include ‘whether to explain who I am'."

"...Should I act as though you did not just say that?"

"Can you?" he snaps at him, and then winces apologetically. It's exactly the thing Iomedae would've said. And it is absurd to consider that a point against the man.

"- I am trying, now, to explain what I had previously chosen to keep secret, because it probably won't work but anything else definitely won't work, and you do not need to pretend you didn't hear me."

"This conversation seems like it might be a little delicate," says Catherine, "And like all delicate things is perhaps not best located halfway inside the Abyss. Perhaps we'd all be a little less on edge if we relocated to a Drezen prison cell temporarily?"

Galfrey is preparing to respond with the fact that she WILL NOT ALLOW ASPEX BACK IN DREZEN and is pretty sure this whole conversation was plainly a manipulation aimed at that, but ‘a Drezen prison cell' throws her off. "And how would we get there, exactly?" she says, after a disconcerted pause. "- also, who laid the current precautions on Drezen's prison cells."

Marit did. He does not think that saying this would improve the situation. Alfirin probably did some herself as well. That seems equally unlikely to improve the situation.  "A wizard I trust," he says. "We could go to Nerosyan, if you'd rather. - so long as Cansellarion remains present." He will probably object if Galfrey decides to murder him for no reason. And Alfirin will probably get him back, or he wouldn't be willing to take even that chance.

"I can accompany you to Nerosyan for the next day, though after that I have other duties to attend to." Hopefully with at least an hour of sleep somewhere in there. "With that much time in Nerosyan we can find an Abadaran to do arbitration?"

Galfrey can't actually think of anything wrong with this but she's not sure that doesn't just mean she's being outmaneuvered. "I don't know that Nerosyan's dungeons make for a notably more pleasant conversational environment," she says, "but if you want to surrender while we investigate your claims to have a secret hard to verify reason I should trust you, I will accept your surrender, and investigate those."

Marit does NOT want to surrender to a dishonorable person who wants him dead. He really desperately does not want to do this. It's the kind of situation where he'd be tempted, if he trusted her, to ask Iomedae for the strength to do it, or for a warning he shouldn't. 

He'll do without. 

"Am I safe there, in the event that I am innocent? I imagine Nerosyan too might have a problem with Baphomet cultists?"

"We're better equipped than Kenabres to combat them," says Galfrey.

"I can only imagine what heights of combatting them a better-resourced inquisition could attain."

Alfirin does not have any more alternative prison cells to suggest. Of prison cells to be in, she'd rather be in Nerosyan's than Lastwall's or the Hellknights', and she doesn't expect Galfrey to agree to Absalom.

Marit's trying to think why Alfirin proposed this plan in the first place and is at this point leaning towards the interpretation of her intent "Nerosyan's prison cells are probably escapable if you are two powerful wizards mistakenly believed to be fighters."

…the Abyss is known to interfere somewhat with your ability to reason, isn't it. The moreso if you're Lawful or Good. And they're all being astoundingly stupid. 

"I'll accompany you to Nerosyan. I won't attempt escape on the way there, though I'm not offering my parole in full generality in the absence of a legitimate charge by which you'd otherwise hold me."

Galfrey still isn't sure that this isn't some cultist scheme, but she's also getting sick of being in the Abyss, and it feels on a gut level like things can hardly get any worse anyway. "All right," she says.

Aspex turns out to wear a truly astonishing number of magic items, even compared to what's normal for a very wealthy very powerful adventurer. He has celestial plate armor, which is one of those things that's in the history books and most historians assume it's an exaggeration about some well-made mithril because the properties attributed to it seem impossible. 

The Bag of Holding is trapped; he warns them not to try to see what is in it.